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The Glass Garden
Dr. Therese Blake is a homebody archaeologist devoted to the history of planet Earth. But when her sister Lissy makes a stunning discovery near an abandoned colony on a distant exoplanet, the sisters team up to discover its secrets.
Eerie, luminescent images cover the walls of an underground cavern. The glass garden looks like a payday to Lissy, who’s been struggling to turn a profit to keep her salvage crew fed and paid. Therese, however, insists on careful academic procedure. She can’t figure it out: Is the anomaly an artificial creation–or a living organism?
As the anomaly’s mystery draws the sisters into an obsessive orbit, it turns out neither greed nor science can offer protection from its relentless gravity.
Eerie, luminescent images cover the walls of an underground cavern. The glass garden looks like a payday to Lissy, who’s been struggling to turn a profit to keep her salvage crew fed and paid. Therese, however, insists on careful academic procedure. She can’t figure it out: Is the anomaly an artificial creation–or a living organism?
As the anomaly’s mystery draws the sisters into an obsessive orbit, it turns out neither greed nor science can offer protection from its relentless gravity.
132 pages, Paperback
First published May 13, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 16, 2025
This book arrived as a total surprise on my doorstep from the publisher and it sounded right up my alley - a space novelette in which a group of salvagers discover a strange and beautiful anomaly in a cave on a deserted planet. It looks like a stained glass work of art, with intricate vines, flowers, and insects depicted over a bioluminescent wall. Lissy, the crew's captain, believes this will make them all rich and feels pressured to move quickly on disassembling it. Her sister, an anthropologist, wants them to take their time with this, to learn as much as possible about the planet, the wildlife, and this terrifyingly wonderful find.
As the book progresses, the 'garden' wall seems to call to some of the crew while the others are determined to understand what happened to the previous settlers, who seem to have simply vanished into thin air. The more they explore, the more questions they have. There are no signs of a rushed evacuation, and yet no bodies.
It's creepy and atmospheric and definitely has that claustrophobic feel that's basically a requirement for this type of fiction. It's a quick and unique read. It has none of the clunky techy sci-fi terms and all of the anticipation and anxiety that comes with being out of your element on extraterrestrial soil.
My only complaint... it felt a little too rushed at the end. And no wonder, with it clocking in just over 130 pages.
As the book progresses, the 'garden' wall seems to call to some of the crew while the others are determined to understand what happened to the previous settlers, who seem to have simply vanished into thin air. The more they explore, the more questions they have. There are no signs of a rushed evacuation, and yet no bodies.
It's creepy and atmospheric and definitely has that claustrophobic feel that's basically a requirement for this type of fiction. It's a quick and unique read. It has none of the clunky techy sci-fi terms and all of the anticipation and anxiety that comes with being out of your element on extraterrestrial soil.
My only complaint... it felt a little too rushed at the end. And no wonder, with it clocking in just over 130 pages.
July 4, 2025
Well, that was disappointing. I hoped a novella would help me through a bit of a slump, but while I finished the book, I didn’t enjoy it. 🙃
It takes til 2/3 through the book for any of the horror to start to happen, which is really rough in a novella. The characters also read as much younger than they were supposed to be. There’s a lot of silliness I didn’t care about - and since I didn’t care, I was more frustrated with the delayed action.
Once the horror started, I did think it was well done. I liked the concept and the imagery. So that’s something!
It takes til 2/3 through the book for any of the horror to start to happen, which is really rough in a novella. The characters also read as much younger than they were supposed to be. There’s a lot of silliness I didn’t care about - and since I didn’t care, I was more frustrated with the delayed action.
Once the horror started, I did think it was well done. I liked the concept and the imagery. So that’s something!
May 29, 2025
3.5 stars
This was an enjoyable sci-fi read that worked perfectly as a novella. There’s definitely some cosmic horror vibes as well and I liked how the ending leaned into that ambiguity. I was left with questions, but I still felt satisfied with how things played out.
My one gripe is I did get annoyed with some of the characters and I only found two out of the five characters to be likable. Overall though, this was an intriguing sci-fi novella that blended mystery, tension, and an unsettling atmosphere in a way that kept me engaged until the end.
This was an enjoyable sci-fi read that worked perfectly as a novella. There’s definitely some cosmic horror vibes as well and I liked how the ending leaned into that ambiguity. I was left with questions, but I still felt satisfied with how things played out.
My one gripe is I did get annoyed with some of the characters and I only found two out of the five characters to be likable. Overall though, this was an intriguing sci-fi novella that blended mystery, tension, and an unsettling atmosphere in a way that kept me engaged until the end.
September 19, 2025
This was such a bizarre book in the absolute best way possible! Oddly enough I had a dream about reading a scifi horror novel like this and then found this book in the library the next day… which if you read this story will find that little fact even more bizarrely synchronistic!
If you are looking for an out of this world (literally) horror novel then this is the book for you!
If you are looking for an out of this world (literally) horror novel then this is the book for you!
June 5, 2025
“…Life permanently fixed in a homage to itself. An offering to beauty…”
Novella’s are often hit-or-miss for me, and yet sci-fi novella’s (specifically cosmic sci-fi novella’s) are in some league of their own. I’m a sucker for these things! I will happily immerse myself in a 800+page-brick of a space-opera, but there’s something truly special about an author being able to evoke the same level of wonder, existential dread and lingering questions within the span of less than 150 pages… Jessica Levai’s The Glass Garden is thát.
The story is, in many ways, one you’re already familiar with: a space-crew arrives on a distant exoplanet and uncovers a strange (alien?) artifact amidst the ruins of a long-extinct space colony. In an attempt to understand this strange anomaly, they are caught up in Lovecraftian forces beyond their comprehension, that are equal parts mesmerizing and horrifying.
The prose is beautiful, the atmosphere tense and enchanting, and the characters add an extra layer to the story that I honestly wasn’t expecting. Our protagonist and her sister Lissy have a very interesting dynamic, which really added to the tension and the stakes of the mission.
Based on the story, atmosphere, writing and execution; this could’ve been a 5-star novella. Minus 0,5 star because it does march a very predictable path towards an inevitable end with few surprises along the way.
The other half star, it loses because of a couple of mistakes I noticed. There were two spelling mistakes/typo’s in the ebook (e.g. “mine” being misspelled as “mien”). Additionally, the space ship is named “Maris Stella”, which is supposed to be an inversion-play on “Stella Maris” (star of the sea), making the ships name “Sea of Stars”. Except that’s not how Latin works, and changing the word-order makes no difference. The correct way to make it say “Sea of Stars” would be something like “Mare Stellarum”.
Neither makes a difference to the plot, if you’re going to price your indie-published book at a similar point to traditionally published novels, the editing should be on par with those.
Novella’s are often hit-or-miss for me, and yet sci-fi novella’s (specifically cosmic sci-fi novella’s) are in some league of their own. I’m a sucker for these things! I will happily immerse myself in a 800+page-brick of a space-opera, but there’s something truly special about an author being able to evoke the same level of wonder, existential dread and lingering questions within the span of less than 150 pages… Jessica Levai’s The Glass Garden is thát.
The story is, in many ways, one you’re already familiar with: a space-crew arrives on a distant exoplanet and uncovers a strange (alien?) artifact amidst the ruins of a long-extinct space colony. In an attempt to understand this strange anomaly, they are caught up in Lovecraftian forces beyond their comprehension, that are equal parts mesmerizing and horrifying.
The prose is beautiful, the atmosphere tense and enchanting, and the characters add an extra layer to the story that I honestly wasn’t expecting. Our protagonist and her sister Lissy have a very interesting dynamic, which really added to the tension and the stakes of the mission.
Based on the story, atmosphere, writing and execution; this could’ve been a 5-star novella. Minus 0,5 star because it does march a very predictable path towards an inevitable end with few surprises along the way.
The other half star, it loses because of a couple of mistakes I noticed. There were two spelling mistakes/typo’s in the ebook (e.g. “mine” being misspelled as “mien”). Additionally, the space ship is named “Maris Stella”, which is supposed to be an inversion-play on “Stella Maris” (star of the sea), making the ships name “Sea of Stars”. Except that’s not how Latin works, and changing the word-order makes no difference. The correct way to make it say “Sea of Stars” would be something like “Mare Stellarum”.
Neither makes a difference to the plot, if you’re going to price your indie-published book at a similar point to traditionally published novels, the editing should be on par with those.
May 16, 2025
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked this book, but whatever it was it veered off the path I thought it was going to take almost instantly. Which is always a good thing!
In the beginning the story sets up not just one but two potential sources of dramatic tension – one personal and one professional.
In this far-future galaxy, Lissy Blake is a down-on-her-luck, down-at-heels space salvager in desperate need of a big payday to keep her salvage ship operational and her crew fully equipped and fed and housed. (Think of Firefly, only with less moral center, considerably worse luck and an even smaller ship and crew.)
Lissy thinks she’s on the trail of a big payday in the form of an abandoned colony that doesn’t look like it’s been stripped – at least not yet. A world where she’s found a mesmerizing artifact that is sure to save her bacon – and buy LOTS more of it – if she can get it properly authenticated and extracted.
Which is where all those tensions come in, because this operation isn’t exactly on the up-and-up, so Lissy needs an archaeologist she can trust absolutely to work on the down-low. Lissy’s sister Theresa is an archaeologist. Lissy knows that she can trust Theresa not to squeal to the authorities until after the job is done.
But she is equally certain that she can trust Theresa to be, well, Theresa. Meaning a bit smug, more than a bit standoffish, terribly pedantic, insistent on following procedure and protocol to the letter – and generally being a pain in the ass and reminding her every single second of how proud their parents were of Theresa’s accomplishments and just how little they thought of Lissy’s.
Every single bit of which turns out to be utterly true in all the worst ways, to the point where the still-burning sibling rivalry leaks out onto the entire crew. This is not a happy ship – and that’s before they start exploring the planet and the artifact that Theresa dubs ‘The Anomaly’ because it doesn’t make any sense in any archaeological context.
But it is beautiful. And mesmerizing. And quite possibly the reason that the colony got abandoned in the first place. If abandonment is the right description after all.
Escape Rating B: I was expecting this to go in the direction of the sibling rivalry and professional conflict, and frankly end up in either murder or betrayal or both. And it does start out in those directions, with a heaping helping of seeing things more closely from Theresa’s perspective to understand that her situation regarding both her career and their parents, isn’t any better than Lissy’s. Theresa is just less outwardly aggressive about pretending everything is fine, which is part of their dynamic. Lissy runs over Theresa’s – and everyone else’s – boundaries, and Theresa pulls into her shell in defense.
The dysfunctional relationship between the sisters was, on the one hand, something that grounds this story into the real. Their mission may have a lot to do with the far future, but sibling rivalry is among the oldest of the old stories, going all the way back to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel – and probably something similar in every culture’s origin stories. Very much OTOH, that setup felt just a bit mundane, and Theresa and Lissy seemed to be sticking to their tropes – at least until the story veered into the weird and started sticking to them in fascinating, unexpected ways.
(Also, Lissy’s boyfriend was just there to be a ‘redshirt’ and it was a bit obvious.)
What draws the reader into this story is the mystery. The records say that the colony was abandoned, but that doesn’t begin to tackle the way in which it was abandoned. The colonists are gone. Completely gone. If they’re dead there’s no evidence of it. There are no bodies – no skeletons, no remaining, well, remains, not even of the most dry and desiccated type.
Nor did they flee, at least as far as the evidence shows. There’s no indication that they took anything. All their personal effects are not just still there, they are still in place. No food was packed. No clothing was bundled up. Their ships are even still intact and quite possibly functional. The colonists are just GONE.
There’s a historical parallel, the mystery of the abandoned ship Mary Celeste, found adrift in 1872. Once I read about the mysterious disappearance of the colony the story tipped right over into SF horror and very much recalled Kemi Ashing-Giwa’s This World is Not Yours. Because , while the fate of the Mary Celeste’s passengers is STILL a mystery over 150 years later, this story needed some kind of resolution and ‘nobody knows’ wasn’t likely to be it.
Which is where ‘The Anomaly’ comes in, as it draws Theresa, Lissy and the crew into its depths in ways that have to be seen to be believed, taking the crew’s breath away and the reader’s right along with them.
Originally published at Reading Reality
In the beginning the story sets up not just one but two potential sources of dramatic tension – one personal and one professional.
In this far-future galaxy, Lissy Blake is a down-on-her-luck, down-at-heels space salvager in desperate need of a big payday to keep her salvage ship operational and her crew fully equipped and fed and housed. (Think of Firefly, only with less moral center, considerably worse luck and an even smaller ship and crew.)
Lissy thinks she’s on the trail of a big payday in the form of an abandoned colony that doesn’t look like it’s been stripped – at least not yet. A world where she’s found a mesmerizing artifact that is sure to save her bacon – and buy LOTS more of it – if she can get it properly authenticated and extracted.
Which is where all those tensions come in, because this operation isn’t exactly on the up-and-up, so Lissy needs an archaeologist she can trust absolutely to work on the down-low. Lissy’s sister Theresa is an archaeologist. Lissy knows that she can trust Theresa not to squeal to the authorities until after the job is done.
But she is equally certain that she can trust Theresa to be, well, Theresa. Meaning a bit smug, more than a bit standoffish, terribly pedantic, insistent on following procedure and protocol to the letter – and generally being a pain in the ass and reminding her every single second of how proud their parents were of Theresa’s accomplishments and just how little they thought of Lissy’s.
Every single bit of which turns out to be utterly true in all the worst ways, to the point where the still-burning sibling rivalry leaks out onto the entire crew. This is not a happy ship – and that’s before they start exploring the planet and the artifact that Theresa dubs ‘The Anomaly’ because it doesn’t make any sense in any archaeological context.
But it is beautiful. And mesmerizing. And quite possibly the reason that the colony got abandoned in the first place. If abandonment is the right description after all.
Escape Rating B: I was expecting this to go in the direction of the sibling rivalry and professional conflict, and frankly end up in either murder or betrayal or both. And it does start out in those directions, with a heaping helping of seeing things more closely from Theresa’s perspective to understand that her situation regarding both her career and their parents, isn’t any better than Lissy’s. Theresa is just less outwardly aggressive about pretending everything is fine, which is part of their dynamic. Lissy runs over Theresa’s – and everyone else’s – boundaries, and Theresa pulls into her shell in defense.
The dysfunctional relationship between the sisters was, on the one hand, something that grounds this story into the real. Their mission may have a lot to do with the far future, but sibling rivalry is among the oldest of the old stories, going all the way back to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel – and probably something similar in every culture’s origin stories. Very much OTOH, that setup felt just a bit mundane, and Theresa and Lissy seemed to be sticking to their tropes – at least until the story veered into the weird and started sticking to them in fascinating, unexpected ways.
(Also, Lissy’s boyfriend was just there to be a ‘redshirt’ and it was a bit obvious.)
What draws the reader into this story is the mystery. The records say that the colony was abandoned, but that doesn’t begin to tackle the way in which it was abandoned. The colonists are gone. Completely gone. If they’re dead there’s no evidence of it. There are no bodies – no skeletons, no remaining, well, remains, not even of the most dry and desiccated type.
Nor did they flee, at least as far as the evidence shows. There’s no indication that they took anything. All their personal effects are not just still there, they are still in place. No food was packed. No clothing was bundled up. Their ships are even still intact and quite possibly functional. The colonists are just GONE.
There’s a historical parallel, the mystery of the abandoned ship Mary Celeste, found adrift in 1872. Once I read about the mysterious disappearance of the colony the story tipped right over into SF horror and very much recalled Kemi Ashing-Giwa’s This World is Not Yours. Because , while the fate of the Mary Celeste’s passengers is STILL a mystery over 150 years later, this story needed some kind of resolution and ‘nobody knows’ wasn’t likely to be it.
Which is where ‘The Anomaly’ comes in, as it draws Theresa, Lissy and the crew into its depths in ways that have to be seen to be believed, taking the crew’s breath away and the reader’s right along with them.
Originally published at Reading Reality
July 4, 2025
Book 36: The Glass Garden
The Sci-Fi parts of this book were pretty underdeveloped, but I liked how willing Jessica Levai was to tackle sibling relationships in such a trim novella. This book strikes me as something that was birthed within the course of a lengthy shower, and written over the course of a couple weeks maybe.
That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it does feel pretty unpolished and underwritten at times. The whole glass garden concept doesn’t really get too fleshed out, and I think there’s supposed to be a larger environmental message, but since most of the characters in this character driven story feel kinda dry, the themes end up blending together. I liked this book, but maybe a large part of that is because it just said what it needed to say and left.
“She imagined every strand of her hair coming to life, Medusa’s snakes bursting with every hue imaginable. Her stalk eyes touched the anomaly at last. And it was glorious.”
The Sci-Fi parts of this book were pretty underdeveloped, but I liked how willing Jessica Levai was to tackle sibling relationships in such a trim novella. This book strikes me as something that was birthed within the course of a lengthy shower, and written over the course of a couple weeks maybe.
That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it does feel pretty unpolished and underwritten at times. The whole glass garden concept doesn’t really get too fleshed out, and I think there’s supposed to be a larger environmental message, but since most of the characters in this character driven story feel kinda dry, the themes end up blending together. I liked this book, but maybe a large part of that is because it just said what it needed to say and left.
“She imagined every strand of her hair coming to life, Medusa’s snakes bursting with every hue imaginable. Her stalk eyes touched the anomaly at last. And it was glorious.”
July 9, 2025
There are moments where this novella really shines, and the ending scene and lines are included in those moments. There's an interesting exploration of a tense sibling relationship that then gets wrapped up into the ending. I found said ending to be ultimately quite interesting, something to chew on and contemplate for a few minutes. Is it a horrific ending? Or is it something else? Maybe it's both things at once.
There are a lot of things that fell flat for me as well. I felt the dialogue and characters could have been more fleshed out since this is a story that is so heavy on interpersonal relationships and the end moments really depend on those. I also wanted more tension and foreboding building up in the front half. I wanted to feel terrified for the crew before they fully realized they were in the fly trap.
Ultimately a cool concept with some standout parts.
(I received a free copy of this at a recent conference. Thank you Lanternfish.)
There are a lot of things that fell flat for me as well. I felt the dialogue and characters could have been more fleshed out since this is a story that is so heavy on interpersonal relationships and the end moments really depend on those. I also wanted more tension and foreboding building up in the front half. I wanted to feel terrified for the crew before they fully realized they were in the fly trap.
Ultimately a cool concept with some standout parts.
(I received a free copy of this at a recent conference. Thank you Lanternfish.)
May 10, 2025
The Glass Garden is a slow-burning sci-fi that has a captivating atmosphere but leaves much to be desired in character development and resolution. The concept of a mysterious alien structure is intriguing, especially with the contrast between Therese’s academic approach and Lissy’s survival instinct. However, the pacing felt sluggish, and the emotional stakes didn’t fully resonate. While it has moments of beauty, the story feels more like an unfinished sketch than a complete picture, interesting, but lacking in connection.
December 29, 2025
Nearly everything in this book should have been condensed into a couple of opening chapters--you know, the set-up for the story, not the story itself. The relationships between the characters are barely sketched and the premise doesn't really go anywhere or explore anything. The prose tends toward the Millennial, and yes I mean that as an insult.
July 2, 2025
Liked didn’t love. The dialogue was kinda bleh.
July 9, 2025
It was good, I kind of just wish it was longer.
July 28, 2025
More of a 3.5
October 23, 2025
A really great steady sci-fi novella.
Very Eldritch/ Lovecraftian horror. If you liked Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer I highly recommend this
Very Eldritch/ Lovecraftian horror. If you liked Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer I highly recommend this
November 21, 2025
OMG! Best 130 pages pages I have read in a very long time! Great sci-fi! Just read it.
January 27, 2026
This book didn't need all that long to freak me out and disturb me in a way that left me unable to look away.
June 11, 2025
What a beautiful sci-fi, horror short story. This packed a punch. It checked all my boxes; eerie setting where something just isn’t right, fantastic group of characters that you can root for, difficult relationships, isolation and cut off from civilization and you just don’t know how it will end. Pure enjoyment, will look for more from this writer.
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